<div align="center"></div> <div align="center"><font color="orange">Phoenix Suns</font> VS <font color="red">Houston Rockets</font></div> When: Sunday April 3rd, 8:30PM EST/7:30PM CT Where:Toyota Center, Houston Local TV: FSNSW <div align="center">Predicted Starters <font color="orange">Suns</font> <font size="1"><font face="Arial"><font color="orange">Steve Nash, Quentin Richardson, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire</font></font></font></div> <div align="center"><font color="red">Rockets</font> <font size="1"><font face="Arial"><font color="red">Bob Sura, David Wesley, Tracy McGrady, Clarence Weatherspoon, Yao Ming*</font></font></font></div> <font size="-2"><font color="red">*Yao Ming is questionable for this game.</font></font> Keys to The Game For Phoenix <ul> [*]Ball Movement. The Phoenix Suns are a very good passing team, led by the league leader in assists, Steve Nash, who is having a MVP-type season while leading the Suns to a top 3 record in the league. They need to move the ball and find the open man tonight against a tough Houston defense. [*]Perimeter Play. The Suns are one of the best three-point shooting teams in the NBA, with three-point contest champion Quentin Richardson, Joe Johnson, Jim Jackson, Nash and Walter McCarty, among others who are very good three point shooters. If their outside shot is on, there is no stopping Phoenix. [*]Amare Lights It Up. Amare Stoudemire has taken the league by storm this year with his wide array of skills, both facing and with his back to the basket, to go along with an improving jumper. If Stoudemire comes to play tonight against defenders like Yao Ming and Mutombo who are slower than him, this game could be a Phoenix blowout. [/list] Keys To The Game For Houston <ul> [*]Defense. The Suns lead the league in scoring and they are guaranteed to put up 100 every game. What the Rockets would have to do is force the Suns to take bad shots while scoring those 100, and also keeping up with the Suns' highly entertaining and fast paced offense. [*]Yao/McGrady come up big. If Yao Ming is playing tonight, it would give the Rockets an offensive boost as Amare Stoudemire is undersized on defense. Although Amare might be a problem for Yao to guard as well, Yao can at least neutralize his presence on the other end. Tracy McGrady has to rebound from a bad shooting night against New Orleans and light up the Suns. Last time the two teams met, McGrady had a great game, scoring 38 points. He'll need a similar performance. [*]Rebound. The Rockets need to rebound the ball, and also rebound from an ugly loss against a much weaker Hornets team. On the glass, Houston can expect 10 from Weatherspoon and also Mutombo if he gets sufficient playing time, but they have to be prepared mentally to win this game. Confidence must be low right now but we have to play with passion and desire. [/list] Prediction Suns-110 Rockets-104
Well, the loss was pretty much expected. Everyone on Houston's in a shooting slump right now so none of the role players really stepped up. However, I was pretty surprised by Van Gundy's starting lineup for this game. Sura Wesley Bowen McGrady Yao I guess he thought McGrady would fair better against Marion, but it did tire him out a lot so it probably didn't work well. I'd of rather put Padgett on him but oh well. Yao was probably the only good point of the game grabbing a bunch of points and boards. However, the team just didn't utilize him too much on offense for him to make too much of an impact. Looks like our winning streaks are coming to an end. Dropping two straight- not good.
Bowen made more sense than Weatherspoon as we had to get someone fast enough to contend with Marion at power forward. Whoever Weatherspoon was on, if he had started, would have had a field day. In the end, though, we still lost the game. Yao had a pretty good game with a double-double. 12 rebounds from him is something we haven't seen in a while. Jon Barry was out with a freak accident during pregame warmups and we had to go small with Wesley, James, Sura, McGrady and Yao most of the time. Looks like 50 wins is out of reach now, but 48 is still possible and highly likely. Btw, what's up with the activity on this thread? Pretty big game and....just one reply?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">Btw, what's up with the activity on this thread? Pretty big game and....just one reply?</div> Maybe because it was a bad game by the Rockets considering they also lost a must win game last friday to the Hornets. They had been shooting horribly during the last few games especially behind the arc. Lots of open looks but they just couldn't convert even in home games. You'll see that their total win-loss game ratio at home and at the road are the same. They also have the tendency of building a big lead then fall in the 4th quarter in games like against the Hawks and Hornets. Gain notoriety by being the only team swept by the Bobcats. I hate to see the Rockets playing this way especially in the last few games of the season. To qualify for the playoffs we must win 48 games as of now due to Twolves loss to the Suns. The more the Twolves lose the lesser will be the quota for a playoff spot because if they(Twolves) win all their remaining games they could get as much as 47 wins and if we are tied we'll lose the spot courtesy of their 2win-1loss against us this season. Of the remaining schedule that we have which is 8 games there are only 3-4 games that are winnable. That will be against the Clippers, Lakers, Sonics and Warriors. If Lewis and Radmanovic are still injured we might have a chance against them. Also the Warriors are 8-2 in their last 10 so the Rockets might play their heart out and shoot well to win. The other 4 games against the Nuggets(at home), Phoenix(road), Sonics(road) and Grizzlies(home) are very tough. If Juwan could be back by the last week of the regular season it would be good for us. With the Nuggets having the easiest schedule I see them overtaking the Rockets and maybe even the Kings for the 5th 0r 6th spot. At the last moments it will be a toss betweeen the Grizzlies, Twolves and the Rockets for the final spot. The Rockets might be even begging for it and thats the time they will realize how important that game against the Hornets is.
